There are obvious things without even having to piece them together. Like the renowned tailors in Klein suddenly not taking appointments, or a bunch of jewelers being summoned to the imperial palace – sudden events that seem unrelated but are ultimately predictable.

The former meant that Beatrice Laval had started choosing her outfit for the engagement ceremony, and the latter meant that Duchess Schroeder had made plans to decorate the engagement ceremony with jewels this time.

These are things that have been happening consistently for years. Beatrice Laval has long dominated high society, and Duchess Schroeder has long been repeating the cycle of making outrageous plans only to quickly give up on them.

Bored nobles, tired of such obvious events that made them yawn, turned their attention to the new face that had arrived in Klein. Though that face was still the same old face.

But if that face and that face were newly combined, that was somewhat interesting.

“I heard the Duke and Duchess of Lucenford have finally arrived?”

“His Majesty will be able to take a breather.”

“Ah, is it only His Majesty who can breathe easier? We too can breathe a sigh of relief.”

The enormous engagement ceremony schedule and plans that Duchess Schroeder causes trouble with and fails to resolve are still not settled. Everything just ended up half-made.

“But where are the Duke and Duchess, and what are they doing?”

The ducal couple was currently taking a walk in a completely different place from Klein, where people extremely curious about them were swarming. Taking a walk was a very important daily routine for the couple. Kaella, with her lips tightly sealed, just walked along, following Peon who held her hand.

A fearless squirrel suddenly appeared, stood still, and observed them with its black eyes for a while. Sunlight sparkled and fell through the green leaves. The couple quietly walked in step along the path with a curtain of light.

Kaella didn’t know where this forest path with good air was. She had just walked where Peon led her. When she took a step, instead of the townhouse where they had been arguing, there was a deserted and dazzling path and forest, but it wasn’t surprising anymore.

“If it had been like this, there would have been no need to travel all the way from Lucenford to Klein.”

Just one step and arrival, wouldn’t that work? It would have been incredibly convenient. Peon stopped abruptly at Kaella’s muttered words.

“You didn’t say a word throughout the meal, and after coming all the way here, that’s what you say after thirty minutes?”

Kaella, who had no intention of conversing with her crazy husband in the first place, replied bluntly.

“I have nothing to say.”

“You have things to say but you’re not saying them.”

“I’m not saying anything because I have nothing to say.”

Why does he keep making me talk? She didn’t particularly want to speak, and she disliked such wasteful conversations even more. Kaella was just thinking about how delicious the peaches and red oranges that came as dessert were, with even their scent being sweet.

Surprisingly, Kaella didn’t get indigestion while having a late lunch in front of Peon. So she wanted to give some significance to that great achievement, but Peon was persistent.

After suggesting a walk and completely changing their surroundings, he waited and waited until she spoke without even realizing it.

“Then let me ask.”

Well, if she could have shaken him off, Kaella would have succeeded in dying long ago.

“What do you know about Count Ostein’s death before the regression?”

The question about how the event of her father’s death unfolded flew straight at her.

“I don’t want to talk about this subject with Your Majesty.”

“Why? Are you afraid you’ll hear more things you don’t know?”

Peon smiled, seeing right through her. He was sneering. Kaella tried not to show any reaction, but he was skilled at getting under her skin.

“Are you afraid it might have happened differently from what you know?”

“I guess you don’t think I already know the truth.”

Unable to hold back, Kaella snapped. After throwing a fork, she could certainly snap as much as she wanted.

“Rehashing something I already know is a waste of time.”

“You never resented me once in those 4 years.”

Peon brought up the pre-regression events that Kaella didn’t want to hear about.

“You never said anything unpleasant, I was just your husband who you weren’t on good terms with. That’s exactly how you treated me. Just treating me like a husband when I was a severely lacking idiot was something I should be grateful for.”

It was a luxurious time that was still vivid as if within reach, but could never be returned to. It was like that for Peon. It was when he was wealthiest, throwing away all the attention and devotion that Kaella gave him with every breath.

He had squandered and wasted like a madman, so it was natural that he was poor now. Those times would never come back. He knew. That was Peon’s share, and the lamentations and regrets for it were something he had to swallow alone as the price he would bear for life.

“But suddenly, you who hadn’t said anything for 4 years, suddenly now treated me like a murderer.”

Kaella sensed it. Peon wouldn’t give up until he got an answer.

“Then that means you heard something new in between. The time I completely lost you was…”

The one time Kaella de Chasser completely slipped from Hyperion Sibrand Ferro’s hands. Only once, but for quite a long time.

“When I confined you in the North Tower.”

It must be a time his wife, who said she hated being cold and hungry so much she wanted to die, didn’t even want to think about.

“From then… until you died.”

“I died?”

Peon sighed.

“You only react to things like that.”

“Did you see me die?”

Kaella’s eyes widened as she kept asking. Until now, Kaella had never experienced a death worthy of being called death, to be precise. Even the one time she thought she had properly died, when she came to her senses, she had only regressed.

It was an important issue for her. If she couldn’t die properly, suicide attempts would be useless. However, Peon struggled to answer with a distorted face.

“Did you see it?”

“…I saw it.”

“Then that means I did die.”

“Do you know how you died?”

“Lying down, I suppose.”

“You died without even being able to close your eyes.”

What difference does that make? Kaella didn’t care what happened to her corpse after she died. There wasn’t the luxury to consider burial at that time. Just dying was more than she could ask for.

“You were lying on the dirty floor, unable to even close your eyes.”

It was a strange situation where the dead person was listening calmly, and rather the person who contributed to the death was speaking and suffering greatly.

“I guess you came to check if I was dead?”

Peon looked at her. His expression was dumbfounded. No, was it shock? His eyes, full of pain, were filled with shock and guilt.

“…I went to save you. Though you won’t believe it.”

Even his voice was cracking.

“What for?”

Peon had no reason to save her. Unable to understand, Kaella kept asking.

“Because I realized I had done wrong.”

“When?”

He closed his eyes for a moment. The pain he felt was so great that he wanted to tear his body apart rather than endure it. It was a pain he wanted to forget by hurting another part of his body. But he couldn’t dare to do so in front of Kaella.

“…On the 12th day. Lucenford fell.”

Ah, so that’s when I died. Kaella finally knew when she had died. Although she could count how the days passed inside the North Tower, Kaella didn’t have the mental state or physical strength to count. She didn’t even last two weeks.

“I thought you would have eaten something at least. I never said to kill you, so of course…”

The prisoners of Lucenford might receive rations of something that might or might not be food, but they at least sustained their lives. Moreover, Kaella was, after all, the Emperor’s niece. She wasn’t a prisoner that Peon, who could be branded as a traitor, could handle carelessly.

Rather, she was clear evidence that could be used as a reason for rebelling against the Emperor, and although not very effective, she was still a hostage.

“I thought you would naturally be alive, so I went to save at least you, but that bastard…”

Those rotten people of Lucenford who couldn’t be purged even if ground and drunk interpreted the word confinement quite freely. Peon gritted his teeth and held back before words that shouldn’t come out could escape. He also endured the pain.

“I’m sorry.”

In the end, it was his fault. No matter how much it was insubordination or treason, the actions of an incompetent subordinate were ultimately the superior’s responsibility. The desire for death deeply engraved in Kaella’s bones was provided by him.

The pain Peon was feeling now was just pain stemming from emotion. So if he gave up all attachments like Kaella, he wouldn’t feel anything, but Peon couldn’t do that.

He wasn’t made that way. The pain so great that it made him wail and suffer as his nerves split apart, the pain because of Kaella, ultimately changed him. It would be fine if he changed.

“That was my fault. It was my fault, but… someone opened the door and came in, Kaella?”

Could terrible guilt and madness mix? Kaella learned for the first time that they could while looking into Peon’s eyes.

“The door was open. Who came?”

Bloodshot eyes gently asked while repeatedly reviewing a time that brought pain worse than death just by recalling it.

“Who came and talked about Count Ostein’s death?”

At that time, Kaella heard something from a rat that had secretly crept in. Now a man with senses keener than a beast, Kaella was certain the moment she blamed him for her father’s death in the palace corridor. That rat disappeared after only whispering to the dying Kaella without even saving her. So he needed to know.

Kaella, who never answered his questions, turned her gaze to the peaceful path beside them. Peon sighed.

“You don’t want to talk, right?”

No matter how much he asked, she wouldn’t answer, only looking elsewhere, eating only when fed anxiously and barely swallowing a little, and barely maintaining her seat only when taken for a separate walk.

Not only that, if left alone she would just lie in bed thinking about dying, so he had to coax and persuade her to do her Duchess work that she liked and was good at, one by one, even adjusting the workload so she wouldn’t overdo it.

After that, he even had to show her the results of that work while taking a walk separately. She was really a troublesome woman who required a lot of effort.

‘She’s living up to her looks.’

He deliberately chose a good and quiet forest path where there were plenty of herbivores that weren’t afraid of people. Kaella’s face softened slightly as she looked at small animals like squirrels, rabbits, and birds.

Right. It’s worth her looks. Of course it takes a lot of effort when she’s that pretty. He had to accept it.

“Why didn’t we move like this directly from Lucenford?”

Again, she only says what she wants to say.

“It’s too conspicuous. I’m sorry it was difficult, but.”

Peon answered with a sigh. Kaella finally turned to look at him.

“…Is there nowhere you can’t go?”

“There isn’t.”

“There’s nothing you can’t do, huh.”

Even the wound Kaella had made on Peon’s cheek with the fork had already disappeared.

“Why would there be nothing I can’t do, there’s plenty. You’re not answering me.”

“That’s not a lot, is it?”

“It’s everything to me.”

With a whoosh, a cool breeze blew by, brushing past the two of them. Hair swayed, and broadleaf trees spread their branches wide, clashing and making noise.

On some clear and warm day, light fell like a curtain in a forest full of green. Kaella met familiar eyes amidst that light.

Eyes that had longed and longed with nothing, extremely poor, until they died black. They were exactly the same as the eyes she saw every time she faced the thin, pale woman in the mirror.

“Is it not possible to read my memories too?”

She suddenly threw out another strange question.

“What?”

“Is mental stuff impossible?”

“Are you saying you just don’t want to answer so I should read it? You… do you think that makes sense?”

Peon asked back, dumbfounded.

“You can’t do it?”

“Why couldn’t I?”

Nothing was impossible. He now started laughing nervously.

“I could even touch your brain to make you only want me. I could make you chirp about loving me all day long. Is that what you want? Do you really want me to touch your head? Is that what you’re saying?”

He absolutely couldn’t handle this small, expressionless doll-like woman. She remained emotionless, while he was endlessly burning, tearing, shattering.

“You know I can’t do that. You know and you’re doing this.”

But that wasn’t it. Kaella didn’t know much about him. She knew nothing at all.

“You’re that smart. You know everything. Being that smart, the moment you knew about the regression, you should have asked me many things. You should have asked about everything you found strange. But you didn’t say a word.”

Peon should have asked when she regressed, why, how they came to regress, everything. He grasped Kaella’s hand.

“While you had so much to be curious about to have a conversation this long, you didn’t ask.”

Cool eyes burned like fire, and indifferent lips smiled kindly. Her husband had crawled here, paying the price for the sins he had piled up, with his nerves breaking and flesh bursting. He noticed that she was deliberately staying silent.

“I’ve been waiting all this time. Until you reacted.”

And Kaella mentioned her father’s death as she came out from meeting the Emperor. She reacted.

“The things you ‘deliberately’ didn’t say, I want to hear them from your mouth.”

The held hand firmly interlocked fingers.

“Everything.”